4622 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



The Literary Societies 



OK THE 



COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY. 



HY THE 



HOISr. J^MES CHESISJXJT, 



Of" So-u-tDn. Ca,roli3n.a,. 



OX TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 1876. 



PRINCETON : 

PKINT«D AT THE " PHESS " FEINTING EST k BLI8HMENT. 



1876 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



The Literary Societies 



OF THE 



COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 



BY THE 



EEOlSr. J^MES CHESISrUT, 



ODF SOTTTH C-A-^aOXjIHiT-A- 



ON 



TUESDAY. JUNE 27. 1876. 



PRINCETON : 

PRINTED AT THE " PRESS " OFFICE. 
I Zj^. 



uJ 



Ate*" 



In Exckange, 
JUN 3 1916 



ADDR ESS. 



Gentlemen of the American Whig and Cliosophic 
Societies : 
For many years buffeMd" ty the storm-power of 
the deep, driven on barren isles, or having encoun- 
tered perils by land, and blundered and bruised 
himself, it may be, at the very base of that rugged 
steep 

" Where Frame's proud temple shines afar," 

the wanderer turns on his path to visit once more 
the home of his childhood. Behold him as the sight 
of the ancestral Halls or perhaps the humble, but 
no less happy cot, nestling among the trees, first 
breaks on his eager gaze. His brain is oppressed 
with memories, his heart beats, his bosom swells, and 
his feelings burst forth in flowing tide. The vener- 
able forms, around which clustered holy affections, 
the glad grasp of friendship, and the warmer pres- 
sure of still living love, let us hope, are yet there, to 



send the joyous current bounding back on the heart. 
Else, for him, all were but dead ashes and darkness. 
If you can catch the varied phase of such emotion, 
or if I have in words fitly expressed them to the 
understanding, you will have some idea of the sensa- 
tions of him who, by your invitation, has the honor to 
lift again the voice of fellowship in the Halls of 
Alma Mater. 

To you and to me this day is one of deep inter- 
est. And while I am here to join you in rejoicing 
over the triumphs of peace — over the advancement of 
learning-over the material and immaterial prosperity 
of this revered and renowned Institution, let me ask 
you by way of digression for a moment, to go with 
me, in spirit, down to where the deep blue ocean laps 
the shores of my native land. Stand on this beautiful 
Boulevard with the city by the sea looming at your 
back, while two noble rivers hold you in friendly 
embrace. Look eastward over the sparkling ripples 
of a peaceful Bay. What do you see? All nature 
in view is animate. A whole city seems to have 
arisen from the deep ; and in regalia and decorations 
of bright garlands, and fluttering streamers, and 
waving flags, floats on the water: the air too is 
resonant, and 

*' Musical as is Apollo's lute." 

Look further, until the eye rests on a grand struc- 



ture at the waters' edge, on the opposing island. 
Ever and anon, and from all around, great white 
puffs, like colourless clouds, attract the eye, followed 
by sounds like distant thunder in the tropics. Ever^^ 
soldier will recognize the sound. Uttering now 
military salutes, appropriate to the day. Observe 
there the gay and gallant throng — men, women and 
children — who are they, and what do they there ? 
They are the men of the North and other States 
who have come down to join the sons and daughters 
of Carolina to celebrate this day, this hour, in Fort 
Moultrie, the victory won just one hundred years 
ago by the sturdy patriots who manned the pen of 
Palmetto logs they called Fort Sullivan. Let us now 
join the crowd to offer due honor to the heroic band 
they praise. And being there, whisper in their ears 
messages of good will and peace. 

This pious duty done, let us return to Princeton. 

Standing now on the verge of independent life, 
you survey with eagerness the fields before you ; 
and are ready to assume the responsibilities of man- 
hood. Now it is 

"The passion kindling power of ethereal Hope" 

fires the soul with noble aspirations. Now it 
is like young eagles having tried their strength 
around the mountain home, you look on the 
alluring brightness of the world, and feel confi- 



dent that with full grown wing you can brush the 
sun. Generous, cheering confidence ! Let it not 
be too rudely dashed. The imagination will come 
to obey the rein of the Judgment ; and none too 
late is the wand of Hope enfeebled by the disen- 
chanting touch of Experience. I have no word of 
discouragement for you. We are prone enough to 
grovel in this world. Yes, my young friends, plume 
your wings for highest flights ! for without the 
impulsions of a lofty spirit you will forever flap 
enfeebled pinions in the muddy pools of earth. 

To me all seems changed since I stood here 
forty-one years ago. 

The material and the immaterial world, beauti- 
fully harmonious, speaking a common language, 
seems to proclaim nothing but uncertainty, instability, 
and destruction. This seeming is to the superficial 
interpretation ; the deeper view will see 

" Eternal order circumscribe 
And bind the motions of eternal change." 

Change does not of necessity imply either uncer- 
tainty, or destruction, and may imply development. 
The law of development is change, " by which all 
conditions move on through the varied tenor of per- 
petual decay, renovation and progression." 

The History of Mankind seems to present, in 
its general oudine, such similitude of thought and 



« 



7 

action in all times ; and so many old opinions by 
their own weight sunk in the passing current, have 
been rescued from oblivion, and forced into practise; 
so many of the modern records of thought owe their 
celebrity " to the good memory of those who write, 
and the bad memory of those who read ;'' that 
the student often rises confused, if not lost in 
the maze of this perpetual whirl. Sometimes he is 
inclined to hold that the world's boasted progress 
may be summed up in the expression of a ceaseless 
round of loss and renovation, without substantial 
gain. This seeming circle is but as a diurnal round 
of the human mind, while at each turn it still 
advances in its grand march around the orb of 
Light ; and its cycle will not be complete until man 
shall have attained to that greater fullness of knowl- 
edge, and high development of the moral faculties, 
to which, by his great and varied endowments, he 
seems to be entitled. 

When we look out into the world, and see what 
is there going on, and regard its political, religious, 
and moral aspects, we are apt to feel that it is grow- 
ing worse, and that society is decadent. Having this 
feeling in view I will venture to offer to you a fezv 
thoughts on this great social problem. 

The wonderful achievements of science in later 
days — the advancement in every department of 



8 

learning — the multiplication and perfection of arts, 
leave us In no doubt that our march on these lines 
is onward. But in the moral world how is it ? Are 
we quite sure that we are any better to-day, than 
were those who preceded us two thousand years 
ago ? Take a copy of any of the first-class journals of 
the day, — those epitomes of the history of the daily 
life of civilized man, and what do we find ? a daily 
record of almost every crime known to man ; crimes, 
bloody, bestial, brutal — the hollowness of hypocrisy, 
the uncleanness of fraud, the tyranny of power, and 
the cruelty of cunning malignity, in short the whole 
catalogue. True, all too true ! the heart of man is 
still desperately wicked, and too often fatally bent on 
mischief. The individual man it may be In the given 
case, is not better, but we maintain the mass of 
mankind is. 

Our knowledge of the current crimes of the day 
has been so infinitely increased by the facile ventila- 
tion of them by an enterprising and almost omniscient 
daily press, supplied through the activity of an 
enlarged and improved system of police, that I 
believe we have greatly over estimated the ratio of 
the commission of them, as compared with those of 
the olden time, when the world knew of crime chiefly 
through the slow process of judicial proceeding. 



Every great fact Involving the necessities of 
humanity, proceeds from the will, and is inaugurated 
by the power of the great designer. It is full of 
interest, therefore, to observe how all such move on 
in the steady step of eternal progression. It is true 
that the passions and the prejudices, the Ignorance 
and wickedness of controlling men in every cycle, 
may cause them for a time to be ignored and hindered, 
may smother and roll them back into the darkness 
of a preceding time. Yet the movement will be 
still onward ; ever and anon the true fire flashes 
forth, to dispel the vapours that obscure the truth, 
and cause it to shine out with renewed brightness. 

To illustrate my thoughts I will briefly trace the 
development of two great facts, Religion and v 
Civil Liberty. I do not intend now to attempt to 
show the mutual dependence of these for the full 
development of either. But I have chosen them 
because in them is involved the larger sum of human 
happiness ; and because the history of them will best 
teach that we should never despair. 

The religious sentiment is as much a part of 
man's complete being as his nervous system. It 
would be quite as philosophic to ignore the one as 
the other. Both are subjects of disease and both 
liable to destruction — in the one case you may kill 
the body, in the other you slay the moral nature of man. 



A consciousness of that tie which binds us in 
dependence, hope, love, fear, reverence and obedience 
to a Superior Being embraces the general idea of 
religious sentiment, while the manifestation of it in 
some one or other of the innumerable forms of faith 
exhibited on the earth, proves the existence of the 
general fact — a fact universal and primordial. 

Let us pass over that time, when, as we are 
taught, all virtuous knowledge, and the full light of 
truth fell lustrous among the pure waters and roseate 
bowers of blissful Paradise, and regard man in the 
light of profane history and of our own experience. 
Blind yet conscious ; with base alloy in the metal of 
his nature, but still bearing the faint image of the 
original superscription, filled with the tempest- 
power of misguiding passions, yet amidst the uproar 
attentive, in the main, to the whispers of the still 
small voice, his struggle has ever been to ascend 
higher planes of intelligence and virtue, with what 
success we will see. 

Let us pass also the period of idol-worship and 
of the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans and 
others — stopping, only for a moment, to read the 
instructive lesson deduced for us, as to how far the 
character of the worshipper becomes assimilated to 
the objects of worship. 

It has been observed " that the bestial Egyptian, 



1 1 



the mercurial, brave, lascivious, and polished Greek; 
the barbarous, blood-thirsty and cruel Northman — 
the murderous, pilfering, and obscene Hindoo, are 
but the creatures, the exemplars, the living principles 
of their respective theologies." The national char- 
acter is but the complex image of the national god. 
If the people really believe, they will revere and 
aspire to the supposed virtues of their gods, for no 
man can rise higher than his idea of perfection. 
Cicero, that philosophic and eloquent pagan (if you 
choose) whose splendid genius, coursed on the very 
confmes of revelation, and seemed to catch the elow 

o 

of its coming day, lays bare the cause. " Instead " 
he says " of the transfer to men of that which is 
divine they transferred human sins to the gods ; and 
felt again the necessary reaction." 

Christianity now rises in the front of vanishing- 
idolatry, and mounts the throne of dead pantheism. 
According to our theory, what incalculable influence 
for good the advent of Christ ought to have on the 
character of our race. The purity, simplicity, the 
perfect symmetry, and absolute fulness of all that is 
worthy of imitation, in short the divine perfection of 
this model and mediator must compel improvement 
in all those who believe and practise his precepts, 
and so it did, and so it does now to a great extent. 



T2 

Mr. Gibbon says " the theologian may indulge 
the pleasing task of describing religion, as she de- 
scended from heaven, arrayed in her native purity. 
A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. 
He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and 
corruption which she contracted in a long residence 
on earth, among a weak and degenerate race of 
beings." This is true when predicated of religion in 
general ; but Christianity is in itself the same to-day 
as when it descended from Heaven. It condemns 
now all it condemned then. It enjoins now, as it did 
then, reverence for God, faith, truth, justice, temper- 
ance, patience, mercy, charity, and chastity. And his- 
torically we know that Christ was the impersonation of 
all these, and other virtues as well. Then how is it that 
the larger part of the world calling itself Christian is 
so unlike Christ ? Simply because the larger part 
of that same world does not believe in Christ, nor 
worship him, nor practice his precepts. 

It is true that for long years Christ and his teach- 
ing were kept out of view. When, in the earlier 
times, the Hierarchy and the secular magistracy com- 
bined to use religion for political and selfish ends, 
to plunder and oppress mankind, it became necessary 
to invent a new religion. So out of the suitable isms 
of the earth, they created a horrid monster, and put 
upon its face a mask labelled with the name of gen- 



13 



tie, peaceful, just, all-loving Christianity. All the 
wars, persecutions, bloodshed and burnings which so 
long afflicted our race, in the name of Christianity, 
were perpetrated by the mandate of that cruel 
Simulacrzim. It is true they bore aloft the banner 
of the cross, but their proper ensign should have 
been 

" The sooty flag of Acheron." 

Still oTQod has been grained and more will be achieved. 
The revolting tragedy by Cyril, a Bishop of 
Alexandria, with the learned,, eloquent and beautiful 
Hypatia as his victim, I venture to affirm could not 
now be re-enacted in any part of Christendom, no 
more than you could put into operation the machin- 
ery, and repeat the horrors of Torquemada, or 
relume the torch of Geneva, or kindle anew the fires 
of Smithfield. The historian of our day, however 
much of ignorance and evil he may be compelled to 
chronicle, will not be called on to write a sentence like 
this : "And Roger Williams, differing in opinion from 
the rest of the inhabitants, was expelled the colony." 
Simple but pregnant sentence. In this direction we 
have made enormous strides, we have attained 
tolerance, we have gained religious freedom, and re- 
gained a pure religion, which was the greatest want 
of humanity. 



^4 

" T have seen 
A pine in Italy that cast its shadow 
Athwart a cataract ; .firm stood the pine — 
The cataract shook the shadow. To my mind 
The cataract typed the headlong plunge and fall 
Of Heresy to the pit: the pine was truth. ''"^ 

We turn now to the fact of civil liberty, which 
like the other has had its days of glory and its nights 
of gloom, " its condition of unchangeable constancy, 
passing through its varied tenor of rise, fall, decay, 
renovation and progression." Before we trace an 
outline of its development, let us see w^hat it is. It 
presents a complex idea, embracing not only the 
civil and political idea, but also the liberty of the 
individual. It comprehends grants and restrictions, 
the rights and powers of states, and the rights and 
immunities of the citizen. \_Luben^ So blended are 
these, so mutually dependent that we may ascertain the 
condition of the one by tracing the progress of theother. 
This idea cannot be predicated of any of the abso- 
lute forms, however mild their sway, or however 
much of freedom may for the time be allowed under 
them. It is precluded b}^ the want of constitution, 
of grants and restrictions, of rights and immunities 
secured by checks and balances and the possession 
of a peaceful veto. After this description, rather 
than definition, we will perhaps, be better able to 



"The word Truth has been substituted for Church. 



15 

perceive the wonderful advance which has been made 
In civil liberty. 

According to the modern conception of the idea, 
we must not expect to find it in any considerable 
degree of attainment among the peoples or states 
of antiquity. At times, it is true, they enjoyed some 
freedom, though not in possession of civil liberty 
The separation of inconsistent functions had not yet 
been recognized. In the Greek polity, judicial as 
well as executive powers were in the hands of the 
people, who legislated by decrees. Demos, was then 
not only the source, but the administrator of all the 
powers of the state. Of course such rule was 
caprice merely, and its judgments too often folly. 

Liberty, however, in some sense had been intro- 
duced to the world, and under the Influence of her 
short acquaintance the minds as well as the passions 
of the multitude leapt forth with gigantic force. 
Genius clutched the sceptre of authority, and elo- 
quence ruled in the place of law. For one hundred 
years and more from the time of Pericles, to the 
battle of Chaeronea, when Philip destroyed the liber- 
ties of Greece, Athens, the centre of Greek civiliza- 
tion, the seething cauldron of a wild democracy, 
threw out all that was acute in learning, sublime in 
speculation, beautiful in literature and perfect in elo- 
quence. 



i6 

Yet in all this time civil liberty was not there, for 
neither the property nor the person of the citizen was 
inviolable under the sacred guardianship of law. 
Moral degeneracy, and political licentiousness had 
seized on the people who held despotic sway. A 
majority it is true governed but without guaranty of 
rights to any one. Hence were their philosophers, 
statesmen, generals, and orators banished and recalled, 
murdered and lamented, and property seized and 
confiscated, according to the fitful passions of an 
excitable people. We see therefore that our goddess 
did not long sojourn with the city-states, which were 
left sitting through long nights of darkness to be 
relumed by reflex rays of that light which first fell 
upon themselves. The idea however, was not lost 
Hidden in the whirl of events and for some time 
obscured it was again presented on a larger scale 
and improved in shape. 

Three forms of social polity meet us in close 
succession at the beginning of the Roman lesson. 
The kingship of Tarquinius Superbus assumed the 
absolute form, and left no liberty to the citizen. 
Becoming insupportable, it soon fell beneath the 
indignation of an insulted and injured people. The 
monarchy was changed for another absolute form, 
an exclusive aristocracy, which was of very short 
duration. By it too the commons were sore 



17 

oppressed. Driven to despair, diey seceded to the 
Sacred Hill and effected a happy compromise, which 
laid the foundation of a better government. Mr. 
Calhoun, following the opinion of Cicero and other 
noted writers, considered the institution and applica- 
tion of the Tribunitial veto as a great feature in 
what had now become the Roman constitution. And 
so it was. For a time it checked the government, 
and harmonized the conflicting orders. Under the 
aid of its influence this small people grew into that 
vast republic, whose eagle wings overshadowed the 

ft 

earth. 

The mixed form thus attained by this people, 
stimulated the development and to some extent 
secured the enjoyment of Civil Liberty, and gave an 
impulse which carried the empire in great glory 
through several centuries ; until for want of the 
supporting influences of the Federal contrivance, 
and being wholly corrupted, it fell to pieces "by the 
weight of its own bulk." From all we can gather 
from Cicero's fragmentary account and other sources, 
the constitution seemed too uncertain and ever shift- 
ing ; presenting rather the result of a struggle of 
orders, in which the highest idea was to establish and 
preserve each its appropriate rank. It was a large 
improvement upon the Greek polity, but how very 
short of our idea of Civil Liberty. The several 



i8 

orders maintained some check on the actions of each 
other, and there were some rights and immunities 
secured the citizen, but the^ powers of the govern- 
ment being undefined, and but little limited, there 
could not be any just conception of that body of 
reserved rights in the people, which constitute the 
armory where hang the weapons and the shield of 
w^ell ordered Freedom. 

Let us pass rapidly on, and point only to the first 
descent of Freedom to the modern world. " The 
first unfurling of the standard on the rocky pinna- 
cles of Europe," where the arm of the patriot Tell, 
or his compatriots, sent the arrow^s of death hissing 
to the heart of despotism. The Helvetic confede- 
racy now springs into view, and gives us another 
opportunity to witness the advancement of liberty. 
So too, the result of the life of the noble William, 
first Prince of Orange. As showing the influence 
of the Netherlands on Modern Freedom, the History 
of the Dutch Republic is well worthy of your atten- 
tion. 

I will not detain you by any consideration of 
those aristocracies, and oligarchies, governments of 
the merely non-regal sort, commonly called " The 
Italian republics," as they afford no especial illustra- 
tion of my thoughts, and shall pass immediately to 
the English and American forms. 



19 

The Anglo-Saxon, and the Anglo-American races 
have done more for the advancement of Civil Liberty 
than any other peoples. They have been constandy 
in progression. At this hour we see among the 
Anglo Saxons a large and clear development of 
the important ideas of grants and restricdons, rights 
and immunities, checks and balances, with full pos- 
session of the veto. It would be pleasant and not 
without profit to trace the gradual development of 
these to their present fullness, but the occasion does 
not permit, and we must be content to indicate them 
briefly. 

Civil Liberty and Feudalism are incompatible. 
They cannot co-exist. Yet freedom owes much to 
feudality. With the same mailed hand the bold 
Baron broke the sceptre of despotism, and sheltered 
that nascent power, whose burning breath in time 
melted his armor of triple steel. The great charta 
is in truth the foundation stone of modern constitu- 
tions. The recognition of parliaments the gradual 
elevation of the commons to the third estate, with 
its incessant reclamations of the rights of the peo- 
ple, and constant restrictions of the powers of the 
throne, mark the growth of Civil Liberty up to the 
time immediately preceding the commonwealth. 

This last is a point to pause at, and look back 
over the tortuous yet steady march of Bridsh Free- 
dom. In itself it presents an epoch more interest- 



20 

ing, richer in instruction, and more glorious in exam- 
ple than any other in the History of England, or 
any other country. 

Elliott and Martin, Pym and Hampden, Vane 
and Milton — homely names — names of the gentry 
and people. What a world of thought do they sug- 
gest ! Patriotic devotion, profound and pure — cour- 
age, high — daring and enduring. Intellect compre- 
hensive and brilliant. Eloquence enchanting as 
Cicero — compact, logical and strong as Demosthe- 
nes — piety earnest and rational. Learning in abund- 
ant fullness, with poetry and prose Literature that 
" the world will not willingly let die." Where in the 
annals of time can be found contemporaneous excel- 
lence so varied and so great. 

The learning, and the spirit of that time were 
the fountains from which the statesmen of 1688-9 
drew their inspiration. That learning and that spirit 
from which resulted the constitution of the Realm, 
enlarged its basis and amended its superstructure. 
Thus at intervals, sometimes in single instances, 
sometimes in groups, principle after principle was 
recognized, acquired and engrafted on the ever 
growing mass, until the British constitution had 
loomed up into that complex, towering, yet broad 
and solid structure, which claims to be " the accumu- 
lated wisdom of ages." ^ 



21 



I think it was Montesquieu who said that England 
was a Republic in disguise, but some one more 
recently has somewhat curiously if not inconsistendy 
styled it the " crowned Republic." Our ancestors 
next came with the American forms, starting how- 
ever on the broader principle of sovereignty in the 
people, and carrying along with them the checks and 
balances and restrictive appliances of the former, 
they superadded two new- features. — the Represen- 
tative Democracy ; and the F-ederal Republic, acting 
directly (without intermediate power) on the citizens 
of the component states; and effected also the separa- 
tion of church and state, which developed a high 
type of Civil Liberty. To graduate the advancement 
thus made let the student compare the constitutions 
of the old Thirteen States with some of those sub- 
sequently adopted. 

Let the student also compare the articles of the 
old confederation, with the federal constitution of 
1778-90, and read the debates in convention of the 
sages who formed it. Well and wisely will he find 
their work was done. What it accomplished is now 
a part of history, whose lustre will not be dimmed 
by contrast with the bright pages torn from Greek 
or Roman or English Records. Let no want of fore- 
sight, no honest purpose nor earnest toil be attributed 
to them. If by the degeneracy of states, or the cor- 
ruption of the people thereof, our heritage for a time 



oo 



may be lost, still what has been achieved will not die 
with us. And though Civil Liberty may for a time 
disappear like some rivers in our limestone valleys 
— it will be lost only for a time, and rise again to 
mingle its waters with the life of this and other 
peoples. 

The history of this- fact teaches we should not 
despair — no great truth, no great principle ever 
perishes, but is reclaimed to start firm again. The 
action of the human mind and the procedure of the 
world's affairs are not altogether like the revolution 
of a horizontal wheel, moving always on the same 
plane, but rather like a spire, in which each turn 
trings us a little upward. 

But are our American Institutions in no danger? 
Verily yes, and the peril seems imminent. Already 
many advanced thinkers pronounce their failure. 
They believe universal suffrage, without universal 
intelligence, and universal virtue, must bring univer- 
sal ruin. A less quantum, however than this, will 
suffice for control — can such quantum be had ? Let 
suitable amendments be made to the fundamental 
laws of the states, which can readily be devised, 
whereby minorities may be enabled to protect them- 
selves against the wrongs resulting from the igno- 
rance and rapacity of mere majorities. Carry, as of 
old, personal honor into public affairs ; and with the 
able help given to the pulpit, the school house, and 



23 



the college, by an enlightened and Independent 
Press, to inform, to warn, and to persuade the masses, 
the re*public can be saved. 

Our countrymen as a body are honest, and intelli- 
gent enough to value their institutions. I believe 
they can be aroused in time to save the only systems 
of government which can preserve the liberties and 
develope the power and prosperity of the American 
people. If they have not knowledge enough for 
this, then is our case gloomy indeed, for direful woes 
must follow the freaks of such ignorance. " It is a 
common sentence that Knowledge is power, but who 
hath duly considered or set forth, the power of ignor- 
ance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance 
in an hour pulls down. Knowledge through patient 
and frugal centuries, enlarges discovery and makes 
record of it. Ignorance wanting its day's dinner lights 
a fire with the record, and crives a flavour to its one 
roast with the burnt souls of many generations. 
Knowledge instructing the sense, refining and multi- 
plying needs, transforms itself into skill, and makes 
life various with a new six days' work ; comes Ignor- 
ance drunk on the seventh, with a firkin of oil. and a 
match, and with an easy ' Let there not be,' and the 
many coloured creation is shriveled up in blackness. 
Of a truth Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined 
by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and 
what may be ; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant 



24 

who, let him but wax unbound, would make a sport 
to seize the pillars that hold up the long-wrought 
fabric of human good, and turn all the places' of joy 
dark as a buried Babylon. And looking at life par- 
cel wise, in the growth of a single lot, who having a 
practiced vision may not see that ignorance of the 
true bond between events, and false conceit of means 
whereby sequences may be compelled — like that 
falsity of eye sight which overlooks the gradations 
of distance, seeing that which is afar as if it were 
within a step, or a grasp — precipitates the mistaken 
soul on destruction." / 

We know there is a periodicity in certain classes 
of physical disease ; and there is also a periodicity 
in certain classes of crime — for crimes of the sort 
called mala in se are but the manifestations of moral 
disease. The effort of the physician is to cure — 
and if he cannot cure, to mitigate the violence of 
the symptoms and prevent the spread of the disease. 
If he fail in these, he has one assurance left, which 
is, that periodical disorders will wear themselves out 
and the community will be relieved. 

So it is with the moralist and the statesman, their 
business is to try and prevent crime in every phase. 
But if they fail in that it is still their duty to try and 
shorten the periods and lengthen the intervals — to 
mitigate the violence, and prevent as much as possi- 
ble the spread thereof I think we may take comfort 



25 

from the last assurance. The class of crimes from 
which we are suffering have been of so long dura- 
tion, and of character so violent, that we feel they 
ought naturally to be reaching the condition of ex- 
haustion. Before another year shall have rolled 
round, I expect, for a term at least, a return to the 
period of predominant virtue — then shall we all 
rejoice 

" In the reborn salvation of a Land so noble." 

Great wars resulting in conquest always entail 
dire effects on the moral condition of the conquered 
and conquerors as well. With us these effects have 
not fully spent their force, although in most of the 
states they are rapidly passing away. When they 
shall be entirely removed the 'country will in all 
probability return to its normal condition. But it 
is our duty to hasten that restoration. 

In conclusion I will offer you some general obser- 
vations not inappropriate I trust to the occasion. 

So uniform has been the exhibition of human 
nature that we have seen mankind always divided 
very much as they are now. In accordance with the 
predominance of the one or the other of these divis- 
ions have we observed the progress of truth and 
the attainment of prosperity, or the prevalence of 
error, disturbing and checking social welfare. One 
portion of our race has ever been resdess, energetic, 
enthusiastic, and heedless ; embracing often men of 



26 

splendid endowments, whose Intellects are impelled 
by the combined power of such forces. To these 
novelty has ever presented itself with irresistible 
charm. It is the pabulum of their mental existence, 
the fuel without which their minds would smoulder 
into lifeless ashes. 

In this day they constitute a large and powerful 
class — and perhaps it is well — for it may prevent the 
surcharged air bred in stagnant pools from settling 
down as a stifling incubus on the life of society. 
But they present also an element of danger, and 
unless wisely restrained do as often work Injury as 
wholesome change. They undervalue the past, and 
are regardless of its experiences. Vaunting their 
superiority they stand 

" Pigmies on the Alps — higher than the Alps themselves." 

Forgetting that it is the mountain of past wisdom 
which thus elevates their little heads into the clouds. 

Besides this, there is a class of ancient gentle- 
men — among whom is often seen the smooth brow, 
and ruddy cheek of youth — who wrap themselves up 
In the venerable vestments of antiquity, and upon 
whose polished armor the light of new revelations 
falls as harmless and unheating as the moon's soft 
beams on the gilded dome. To whom the mere 
sound of change, whether implying solid progress, 
or dangerous innovation, comes alike as the knell of 
death. They guard their minds against the penetra- 



27 

tlon of new ideas as their prototypes did their mailed 
bodies against the thrusts of spear or javeHn. They 
throw their bodies as earth to dam and turn back 
the ever accumulating and mighty current of human 
thought. They impede to some extent the other- 
wise gentle and peaceful flow of streams bearing 
rich contributions to the sea of knowledge. By 
unwise obstruction they cause the waters to rise 
higher and higher until it becomes the angry flood, 
sweeping away not only the impediments of worthless 
clay, but destroying likewise the teeming plains. 

But, gentlemen, there is still another class, upon 
whom rests the world's hope ; and in which are found 
the men of real progress, who recognize the force of 
the law of change, and seek the guidance of its true 
philosophy. They neither undervalue the past, nor 
ignore the claims of the present. They know that 
'' the philosophy of fruits must be preceded by the 
philosophy of flowers," and adopt the opinion that 
" while antiquity envieth that there should be new 
additions, and novelty cannot be content to add but 
it must deface," surely the advice of the prophet is 
the true one in the matter, ''State super vias antiquas, 
et videte que nam sit via recta bona, et ambulate in 
ea." Remembering " that men will not see far into 
posterity who do not sometimes look back to their 
ancestors." 



28 . 

In the ranks of one of these of course you will 
enlist. There is a great and noble work before you. 
Qualify yourselves for the task. This you cannot 
do without labor. Genius, if you have it, will help 
you, ^nd give you a clearer insight into the modes 
and ends of work, but cannot supply its place. 
Lazily to fold the arms in the vain hope of ease, is 
but the preparation for a downward course. 

" Non alitor quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum 
Remigiis subigit, si brachia forte remisit, 
Atque ilium in prasceps prono rapit alveus amni." 

While you are marshalling all your forces for 
life's coming battle, let me advise yon not to forget 
this one — for it is a force — personal honor. By this 
I do not mean any fantastic sentiment which might 
lead to crime ; but that sentiment which will make 
you feel a stain on your character as a burn, and 
will compel you, in every case, to respect the rights 
of others, and everywhere and under all circum- 
stances to be faithful to every trust. Cultivate this 
sense of personal honor — cherish it as you do your 
life's blood. In adversity and in prosperity it will 
stand you in great stead ; and may enable you to 
assimilate your character to the many-sided jewel ; 
turn which face you please to the light, it will flash 

back a gleam of the true promethean fire. 

.» 

The world is all before you where to choose your 

place of rest. May Providence be your guide. 



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